It is known in the art, building an business application involves a complex process of creating requirements document that include data model diagrams (using various notations) and elaborating the business rules in simple English like language which are to be understood by the application developers. There are various tools starting from word processors to advanced modeling tools like UML modelers which are usually available to achieve this task. After completing this process, the documentation is handed over to the developers for translating the data model and business rules into an application. The developers create classes or templates in programming languages like Java, C++, .Net, etc.
The classes created by these developers represent the meta-data of the business model along with the code for the business rules. These classes are static definitions of how the model would behave in run-time. To see the actual working of these classes the developer compiles the classes to generate machine code and execute the classes. The classes can be tested only after the process of compilation (to intermediate code or target code) and execution. Developers go through this process of defining/modifying the classes, compiling and testing in an iteration to achieve the desired final output as described in the document. This existing approach demands a qualified software developer to translate a need into a working software program.
It is also known, that expert systems provide involving computer programs that could carry out reasoning tasks by applying the encoded knowledge inputs as “rules” or “frames” to facts concerning a problem provided by the end user.
The existing spreadsheet does not have a way to nest the sheets. Lack of nesting is a serious limitation in using the spreadsheets as a way to define data models. Spreadsheets described in the prior art also lack clear definition and support for ‘Meta Data’ i.e. data to describe data. Without ‘Meta Data’ interpretation of data becomes subjective and not explicit. Hence existing spreadsheets become unusable for defining business applications.
Also, any application is expected to go through multiple versions. With every new version comes along the problem of migrating the old model's data to the new model. This under the existing spreadsheet applications is often done as an offline data migration issue, which requires system downtime. Importantly, there is need for a method and system for maintaining historical changes done to a model against its previous version including such as the change of names, relationships and data types. Moreover, need is felt in the art for facilities for automatic migration utility (Change History) to migrate data from an earlier version of the model to the new version of the model.
Further the capability to selectively utilize part of an existing model in a new version by way of effective facilities to import sheets from one model to another is also found to be an and user requirement with formulas of the imported sheet to be reused in the linked mode.
Therefore, the above show that there exists a need for a new and innovative method for defining business applications using spreadsheet interface. The present invention is directed to meet such further need in spreadsheet like interface that would overcome problems encountered in existing conventional methods, including spread sheets used in defining business applications.